Northern Grotto Salamander vs. Cave Salamander

Both live in the same Ozark caves: Cave Salamanders on the walls and ledges of the twilight zone near the entrance, grotto salamanders farther in and in the cave streams (records share 7 one-degree squares). A: Tiny eyes, the lids partly or fully grown shut in the Northern Grotto Salamander; big, bulging, dark eyes in the Cave Salamander. B: Pale tan to pinkish-white, no pattern in the Northern Grotto Salamander; bright orange to red with scattered round black spots in the Cave Salamander. The gilled larvae of the two are hard to tell apart in a cave stream; a grotto larva grows into a pale, blind adult, a Cave Salamander larva into a bright orange one. The Cave Salamander also has a longer tail that it uses to grip.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

More comparisons

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